If you're not already familiar with the acronym "BRIC" it stands for the group of four emerging economic powerhouses - Brazil, Russia, India and China. In less than a decade and a half, they will dominate the world economy. That marks a major shift away from the global dominance of the United States and Europe. It's coming and we need to position Canada to meet the challenge and opportunities it will present.
The risk is that the BRIC nations will choose to shun existing international institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the OECD, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and such in favour of creating their own counterparts. It's a campaign that's already well underway.
Vlad Putin has called for a new economic order, dismissing the institutions created by the West as "archaic, undemocratic and inflexible."
The Russian President says the ascendancy of the BRIC states, "demands the creation of a new architecture of international economic relations based on trust and mutually beneficial integration."
"Structures that were made taking account of a small number of active members look archaic, undemocratic and inflexible ?. This is clearly visible in the example of the WTO."
"If 50 years ago, the G8 countries accounted for 60% of the world's GDP, the current situation is vice versa--about 60 % of world GDP is produced beyond their borders."
Some of the BRIC states aren't very likeable but we have to accept their role as a fact of life. That means engaging them, not snubbing them. That means forging mutual understandings needed to adapt to the transformation in the economic order. The worst possible result would be to ostracize them and force them into a hostile rivalry with the West.
3 comments:
Harper is well on his way to helping foster a hostile and rival atmosphere. You ought to have called your blog "The New, New World Order".
Just because they have growing wealth, does not mean they are doing everything right....
Given the BRIC record on human rights, income inequalities, environmental management, and protection of intellectual property to name a few issues, the West should be very circumspect to accept any arrangements they put forward.
I would suggest that Brazil and India are the better of the bunch and can be bought into the Western fold much more easily. As for Russia and China, the world will soon see what this unholy alliance has to offer if they can overcome their mutual dislike. They seem to have done a bang up job in Africa (Sudan/Darfur in particular) and in the Middle East with Iran.
No one is suggesting the BRIC states are "doing everything right." I have no idea where you got that fantasy. It is because of concerns over human rights, income inequities, environmental management and intellectual property piracy that we need to engage them. Bringing them into the "western fold" isn't what they have in mind. They know their economies are poised to eclipse those of the "western fold."
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